Real Madrid 6-0 Espanyol : Five Talking Points
Cristiano Ronaldo cocked a snook at his naysayers with a hat-trick as Real Madrid cruised past Espanyol by 6-0 to trim the gap at the top to just 4 points and trail neighbours Atletico Madrid by just one. Having beaten the Catalan outfit by an identical scoreline in the reverse fixture, Los Blancos inflicted more pain on Constantin Galca’s side with another drubbing.Striker Karim Benzema opened the floodgates in the 7th minute, whilst a strike from James Rodriguez, a treble from Ronaldo and an own goal by Duarte saw off another resounding victory for the Whites at the Santiago Bernabeu.Here are the major talking points from the game.
#1 Real Madrid remains a bogey-team for Espanyol
It's been over a decade since Espanyol last got the better of Real Madrid. Considering that and their 13th position in the league entering the fray, the Periquitos never looked likely of bucking their poor record against the illustrious rivals from Madrid and the final score at Bernabeu beamed the same.
Real Madrid have had minimal problems when going up against Espanyol and enjoyed great goal-mouth action, just as they did today. With a 6-0 battering of the side at Cornella-El Prat earlier this season, Los Blancos followed it up with another shellacking of the hapless Barcelona-based club and moreover, with the same scoreline.
Espanyol had held Barcelona to a 0-0 draw at home in the first game of this year, but haven’t replicated that kind of performance against the side from the Spanish capital as they remain a bogey team for them.